It’s a disgusting but also painfully increasingly realistic prospect that this was the last top flight game Everton play under the lights at Goodison Park after they were dismantled 4-1 by a rampant Newcastle United.
This is the same Goodison Park that was the first purpose-built football ground in England and has staged more top flight fixtures than any other. After Farhad Moshiri's takeover was finalised with him acquiring a majority stake in Everton seven years ago, he acknowledged the club’s glorious past but pledged to bring a brighter future by proclaiming: “We don’t want to be a museum.”
However, while nobody can doubt his initial ambition, much of his on-field investment has largely been squandered – last summer he admitted “we have not always spent large amounts of money wisely” and in truth no other football club has wasted so much to become so bad. Everyone at Everton knew the importance of this game, after an initial new manager bounce under Sean Dyche, a run of just one victory in the last nine matches ensured this was the night the Blues had to return to winning ways to keep their heads above water and feel like their destiny remained in their own hands.
MATCH RECAP: How crucial Everton vs Newcastle United clash unfolded at Goodison Park
IN PICTURES: Everton fans stage stunning welcome for team bus ahead of Newcastle game
YOUR SHOUT: Rate the players after Everton slip to heavy 4-1 defeat against Newcastle United
This correspondent was sat in the stands for Everton’s last-day escapes against Wimbledon in 1994 and Coventry City in 1998 but has experienced nothing quite like the pre-match scenes outside Goodison for the arrival of the team bus and then the welcome that greeted the Blues players as they took to the field.
If such support can’t lift you then nothing can but a banner or a firework can’t score a goal for you.
In truth, the pre-game show was as good as it got for Dyche’s men and after back-to-back home defeats they’re left praying for another miracle at the King Power Stadium against Leicester City on Monday night if they’re to maintain a realistic chance of avoiding the club’s first relegation in 72 years.
It was ironic that Moshiri and Everton’s board of directors were not present again to witness such passion from the fans, who remain the beating heart of the club throughout its lowest ebb and what’s even more painful though is that fans are unable to even look forward to the one major plus point of the current regime, Everton’s new 52,888 capacity stadium, being built on the Mersey waterfront because of the on-field catastrophes.
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